Chevy may have claimed that the Volt will average 230 miles per gallon on the government's EPA test, but we all knew from day one that the number was misleading. After all, the car would be in fully electric mode for most of the test.

Now the Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, has finally put a real number on it: 50 miles per gallon.

At least, that's GM's target for the car's real-world fuel economy once the range-extending mode kicks in, which happens after 40 straight miles of driving in electric-only mode, according to GreenCarReports.com.

GM claims the Volt will have a cruising range of at least 300 miles--comparable to a regular gasoline-powered car--on top of the 40 miles of pure electric-only driving with the batteries fully juiced.